How to install TrueNAS

The TrueNAS operating system can be installed either on a virtual machine or on physical hardware. In this article the installation process on a virtual machine is described in detail. You can use such an installation on a Windows PC and therefore get a reliable storage system for your data.

First you need to go to the official TrueNAS website and download the source image of the latest version of TrueNAS CORE OS. As of 2023, it is TrueNAS CORE version 13.0-U3.1

As far as virtual environment goes, we use VMware virtual machine.

  1. First create a virtual machine using the OS image downloaded from www.truenas.com.
    2. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - open the image
  2. Then enter the name of the virtual machine and select the location on the disk for VM.
    3. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - set the name for the virtual machine
  3. Next set the size of the virtual disk for the OS.
    4. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - set the size for the virtual machine
  4. In the options window, click the Customize Hardware ... button to increase the amount of RAM. This must be done because TrueNAS requires at least 8 GB of RAM.
    5. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - increase the RAM size for the virtual machine Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - set the RAM size for the virtual machine
  5. Close this window and click the Finish button. The virtual machine will start and the installation process will begin.
    6. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - finish the process
  6. In the TrueNAS boot menu, press 1 or Enter button. If you do not select anything, this option will be select automatically.
    7. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - run the virtual TrueNAS machine
  7. In the next window you need to select Install / Upgrade.
    8. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - install/upgrade TrueNAS machine
  8. In the window with disks list select the disk on which the OS will install. Then confirm the selection in the pop-up window.
    9. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - select the disk with TrueNAS OS Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - confirm selection
  9. Next specify a password for the root user. It is needed to log into the TrueNAS network interface.
    10. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - set a password for your TrueNAS
  10. Select Boot via BIOS and wait for the installation to complete. It will also be suggested to make a swap partition, but in our case we will not create it, so as not to take up the space of disk image of the virtual machine.
    11. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - boot TrueNAS Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - create swap partitions - no Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - process running Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - installation complete
  11. Shut down the virtual machine and remove the OS image file. Also, add additional disks to the virtual machine for storing data.
    12. Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - shut down the system Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - shut down the system Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - shut down the system Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - shut down the system Creating TrueNAS virtual machine - shut down the system

Installation on real hardware is the same, but before starting the installation you need to prepare a flash drive by writing the TrueNAS CORE image to it. Then, in the BIOS of your computer, you will need to select this flash drive as a boot drive. Once installed, you need to set your TrueNAS up, refer here for the detailed instructions.

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